Reviews
My Old Ass (2024)
A sincere authentic exploration
A fantastically honest and real look at the fundamental question, is life experience worth the pain that may be attached to it.
Maisy Stella reveals herself as a fantastic actress with a very bright award winning future. She delivers an authentic and sincere performance that is disarming and convincing.
The film itself is low key and down to earth. It is subtle and very touching. This is probably Megan Park's best film to date. She brings a deep human insight to this charming human drama. It is washed in warmth and humanity. It is timeless and will be worth watching even 20 tears from now. Go see it!
Megalopolis (2024)
Painful disaster
It pains me to share my review of this movie as a fan of Scorsese's films. This is by far the worst if his movies.
It is a self important, bombastic, and empty re-framing of Roman history. It is said to be an allegory relating our era to that of the Roman Empire, but instead it is a confused salad of content and important and profound sounding speeches with no actual depth to them.
Adam driver is an odd choice, but surprisingly he delivers a descent performance to a ludicrous role. Neither of the supporting actors including Dustin Hoffman and Aubery Plaza, manage to save this sinking ship.
At some points the film is so ludicrous that a rumble of snickering laughter can be heard through the audience, and not in scenes that were supposed to be humorous.
To me it was highly disappointing. I can't understand what was going through this great director's head.
The message of optimism about technology as the salvation of humanity and society at large also clings hollow. It is just a little dissonant in the era of global climate change, and concerns about AI and its impacts.
Drive-Away Dolls (2024)
A whole lot of fun
This film has the making of a cult movie like Pulp Fiction. The dialog is tight-knit, characters well developed, and casting perfect. He cinematography does not disappoint either. Cohen brothers at their best.
The plot is pretty straightforward but still manages to feel fresh and different.
It is a smart movie anyone in the Sunday church luncheon party is likely to hate. An edgy action/suspence/satire movie with great humorous moments and engaging dialog. Go see it, you won't regret you did!
Other movies with a similar vibe that come to mind are: Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Fargo the series, Thelma and Louise, Thw Big Lobowski, and Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Altered Reality (2024)
One of the worst movies I have seen in years@
I wonder if the filmmaker attempted to make a supposedly unintended cult movie on account of its laughability (ala The Room).
The whole storyline was implausible, confusing, and did not hang together. The acting was completely unconvincing starting by the main actor who was also the director and producer. The only actor whose performance was half way descent was the old man, but I have no clue why they even needed him for the story.
The screenplay attempted to involve too many different things that only convoluted the plot without reason. There were major storyline parts that were missing in order to tell a cohesive story. The worst part was the filmmakers didn't miss a single opportunity to hit all clichés on the way to the dumpster-fire!
Missing (2023)
Refreshing riveting fast paced thriller
Perfect use of a new cinematic language to tell a story. This thriller all completely based on digital communication apps and services is a smart edge of the seat nail biter. It takes the viewer through twists and turns as they follow the logic of a very bright young girl trying to decypher the mystery of her mother's disappearance.
Not once have I glanced at my phone. It keeps you figuring out what is happening as things develop in the movie. Don't get popcorn cause you won't be able to stop popping those things in your mouth out of suspense!
Tour de force story telling! The filmmakers did a fabulous job with this genre! Go see it! You owe it to yourself!
306 Hollywood (2018)
Exceptionally creative and stylistically unique
I agree with those critics who disapprove of one of the choices in the film, but I feel the uniqueness and creativity expressed in this film puts it in the must-see list of any Documentary aficionado.
It is thought provoking and raises fundemental questions about our own family's mythology, grappling to understand loss of loved ones, and what is our remaining essence.
In a way it is a sad movie about a perrson who lived what appears to have been a rather unremarkable life, however the magical realism style lightens it up.
Stylistically it is an innovative and important film to pay attention to!
Anbessa (2019)
A Glimps into the life of the down trodden through the eyes on an exceptional kid
Very well shot camera variete style Documentary. It is very sensitive to the pitfalls of superimposing the filmmakers' view point over that of the subject characters common to this documentary style. It avoids such bias well and should be commaded for this.
The film captures the reality of the population that is left behind and pushed around in Ethiopian society
The film juxtapositions the bleak existance of an exceptionally bright and outgoing child and his single mother living in a mus hur just outside so called condo development, with neighbors in these developments, who are just slightly better off but still a world apart.
The best of variete documentaries!
After the Murder of Albert Lima (2019)
Surprisingly captivating for a movie with such name
The film isn't cinematically pleasing but it is extremely engaging and captivating. The viewer is drawn into a personal story of the search for justice and its follies.
It is oddly comical in a dark kind of way, as well as very endearing. There is a certain naivite of the key character who hires twidledee and theedledum as bounty hunters who are drafted to conduct a daring international adbuction scenario of a murderer who has eluded the justice systrm in Honduras for many years.
Early Man (2018)
Cute
Cute but corny and infantile at points. With that said there are plenty of good puns and jokes in it to make you laugh. Also beautifully made as with all Nick Park's Aardman animations.
Brooklyn Breach (2012)
Refreshingly original drama
A dark suspense drama. The story weaves the lives of 3 couples with the backdrop of privacy violation issues in a consumer society driven by powerful corporations. A unique commentary about how our lives can so easily become the drama on someone else screen.
The cinematic language is innovative and involves the audience in a voyeuristic framework, turning the principle of reality TV inward on itself. The story unfolds before our eyes in the form of surveillance feeds, but in a fashion that works with the story, rather than appearing as a gimmick.
Artfully done. A first of an aspiring filmmaker to watch!